


shake my crumbled bones

by nirav



Series: a child of god, much like yourself [6]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-27
Updated: 2016-03-27
Packaged: 2018-05-29 12:31:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6374833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nirav/pseuds/nirav
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>tumblr AU prompt: now that you're on a roll, how aboutttt a mission gone wrong for alex & lucy</p>
<p>[aka, Alex is breakable and does not like to acknowledge it]</p>
            </blockquote>





	shake my crumbled bones

_and as i shake my crumbled bones_   
_i'm safe and holy, safe and holy_   
_i lend my name not to be lame_

* * *

 

It’s a routine mission, a grab-and-bag of one of the milder fugitives.  Kara is swamped at CatCo, and the target’s crowning achievement of physical powers is being slightly stronger than the average high school wrestler, so Alex turns down Lucy’s suggestion to call Supergirl in, instead suiting up herself and taking a team with her to bring him in.

Technically, it’s Lucy’s turn to go in the field– they had to start alternating, to keep from fighting over who got to go– but she spent the night prepping for the upcoming congressional subcommittee meeting, a leftover spoil of Easter egg hunting competition, and can barely see straight from exhaustion, so Alex claims it as her turn.

It does not go well.  

The call has just gone in for Supergirl when something explodes, hurtling a car through the air towards Vasquez, who has the fugitive in a sleeper hold until someone can cuff him, and Alex dives, shoving them both out of the way and ducking too late to avoid getting broadsided by the flying car as it lands and skids into her.  She’s thrown back into the side of another car and crumples to the ground.

Kara appears, slamming down to crouch at her side, eyes wide and afraid.  “I’m okay,” Alex gasps out.  “Vasquez–”

Kara spins away in a whirlwind of speed and in less than ten seconds has the fugitive cuffed, Vasquez safe, and the rest of the team clearing the block in case of another explosion; she skids to a stop back at Alex’s side, hands hovering over her and eyes darting from the blood on Alex’s shoulder to the way she can’t focus her eyes.

“Director Lane,” Kara snaps into the comms.  “Director Danvers is down, have medical prep a bed, I’m bringing her in.”

She rips the hood off of the car that Alex had slammed into and folds it into a backboard, easing Alex onto it, and is off flying to the DEO before Lucy can even respond.

* * *

 

Alex wakes up in the medical bay at the DEO to Kara pacing up and down the room.

“Ow,” Alex mumbles. Her ribs burn and her forehead pulses like a jackhammer.

“Hey!” Kara says quietly, appearing at her bedside.  “Careful, you cracked some ribs.”

“Kara,” Alex says.  Her voice catches and her eyes widen.  “I can’t feel my legs, why–”

“You’re going to be okay,” Kara rushes out.  “The doctor gave you a–a– anesthesia thing, I think, because you wrenched your lower spine and she didn’t want you to hurt it when you woke up.  She said it’ll wear off by tomorrow.”

“I’m not–”

“No,” Kara says, and she smiles, a little bit sad and a little bit tired.  “You’re not paralyzed.  Cracked ribs, minor concussion, stitches in your forehead, but you’re– you’re going to be okay.”  Her eyes are bloodshot, and Alex swallows at the sight.

“Are you okay?”

“Am I– Alex, you could have died!  Why didn’t you call me in?”

“It was a minor mission,” Alex mumbles.  “We thought it would be fine, there was no intel to indicate otherwise.”

“You should have called me in,” Kara says, shaking her head and gripping tighter to Alex’s hand.

“Kara, I– goddammit,” she mutters.  She manages to locate the controls on the bed and stab at the button to help her sit up.  “Kara, the DEO can’t rely on you for everything.  We have a job to do and we’re good at it, and this was bad luck, but we’re still going to keep doing what we’re supposed to do.”

The door opens before Kara can respond, and Lucy stands stiffly in the doorway.  “Supergirl, I’m sorry, but there’s a fire at the port and–”

“I got it,” Kara says quietly.  She bends down to hug Alex, unbearably gentle.  “I love you,” she mumbles into Alex’s uninjured shoulder.

“I love you, too,” Alex says, gripping as tightly as her injured body will allow.  Kara smiles at her and then at Lucy before disappearing out of the room.

Lucy shuts the door behind her and folds her arms over her chest.  “How are you feeling?”

“Not bad, all things considered.”

“Good,” Lucy says.  “So I can say without feeling too bad about kicking you while you’re down that you’re an _idiot_ and you cannot run this agency if you’re dead so don’t you ever do that again.”

“I’m sorry, _what_?”

“Alex, you are _human_ ,” Lucy snaps.  “Only human.  I know how hard it is to accept that when we’re surrounded by people who are more, but we’re human.  We are people of _this_ planet, and we break, and we die too easily, and you need to accept that as a fact and stop putting yourself in situations like this just to prove that you’re capable of doing what the super aliens do.”

“What the hell,” Alex starts, but Lucy holds up a hand, commanding and militaristic and very much Major Lane, war veteran and director of the DEO, and Alex’s mouth snaps shut.

“Alex,” Lucy says quietly.  She finally moves, her posture folding as she collapses down into the chair at Alex’s bedside.  Her eyes are ringed with dark and too little sleep, and Alex closes her eyes at the exhaustion weighing down Lucy’s entire frame.  “You’re not the only one who always has to fight to be seen or to feel good enough.  I know how it feels, you know that I do.  But just because you’ve saved Supergirl all these times doesn’t mean that you don’t need to be saved sometimes, too.”

Alex stays quiet, focusing on the rank insignia covering Lucy’s shoulders instead of meeting her eyes, and Lucy sighs and leans forward.  She folds her arms on the edge of Alex’s bed, one hand falling inches from Alex’s.

“It would destroy Kara to lose you,” she says.  “You have to know that.”  She hesitates, long seconds dragging by, and then reaches out to cover Alex’s hand– bruised and bandaged and with one finger splinted– with her own.  

“You and I have a job to do,” she says.  “Please don’t make me have to do it without you.”

“Okay,” Alex says after a moment.  “Okay.”  It’s something less than a promise but more than an appeasement,and it’s more than Lucy hoped for, so she curls her fingers around Alex’s hand and squeezes gently.

“Also you’re on paid leave for six weeks,” she adds.  “Doctor’s orders.”

“What?”  Alex yanks her hand free.  “What doctor?  Six weeks?  That’s insane–”

“If you don’t listen then I’m going to tell Mom,” Kara says from the now-open door, startling them both.  

“I have work to do–”

“ _We_ have work,” Lucy says.  “And you’re not stepping foot in here again for at least three weeks, which is when you’re having a follow-up assessment with the doctor.  We can revisit this discussion after that.”

“I–”

“Nope,” Lucy and Kara say at the same time.  

“This is completely unfair.”

“Well, maybe you’ll think twice before you get blown up again,” Lucy says.  

Alex throws a pillow at her.


End file.
